hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. 9:30 in kabul, afghanistan. wherever you're watching from irnd a the world, thanks very much for joining us. right now, senate republicans are in their weekly policy lunch on their plates is the big health care vote today today, and whether the majority leader mitch mcconnell can uft inner enough votes to get movement on efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. president trump has been putting pressure on congress to get a health care deal done. we're going to hear from the president around two hours from now. he's holding a joint news conference with the visiting prime minister of lebanon. the two leaders will take a limited number of questions to each. we're going to bring that news conference to you live. that's coming up. the president is also keeping up the heat on his attorney general

jeff sessions. a day after tweeting about his "beleaguered" attorney general today he suggests sessions is "very weak."ov we're covering on the angles. dana bash on capitol hill. seen yur white house correspondent jeff zeleny at the white house. justice reporter laura jarrett standing by and senior congressional manu raju is up on capitol hill. following the second appearance of the white house senior adviser, jared kushner. start at the white house with the president's new shot, a dramatic shot at the attorney general of the united states jeff sessions. here's the tweet. fired off around 6:00 a.m. this morning. "attorney general jeff sessions has taken a very -- all in caps -- very weak position on hillary clinton where are he

e-mail e-mails and dnc server and intel leakers." is that relationship right now, jeff, what are you hearing? beyond repair? >> reporter: wolf, seems beyond repair here. something that is an extraordinary moment. for all the fights this president engaged in over his time here in office, and certainly before that as a presidential hopeful, this is one that is different in many ways. particularly because jeff sessions the attorney general has been at his side so long but also has a deeply -- level of support from conservatives. from the base. they believe that jeff sessions is, in fact, you know, the face of the president's immigration policy. so this appears to be -- something that the president simply cannot get over. this is not a new fight. not something that's just developed. this is something simmering and building for more than four months or so. ever since he decided to step away and recuse himself from the investigation into all of this. the deputy white house press

secretary sarah huckabee sanders, who will become the press secretary next month said on fox this morning, seemed to suggest this relationship may be forever broken. >> look, i know that he is certainly frustrated and disappointed in the attorney general for recusing himself, but as we've said, i think that's a decision that if the president wants to make he certainly will. and he's continuing to move forward and focus on other things, but that frustration certainly hasn't gone away, and you know, i don't think it will. >> so we'll see how this is resolved, wolf. i mean, there is a sense here at the white house that the president is either, a., trying to urge the attorney general to quit, or, b., make the public argument for why he should resign unsure how that will be resolved but taking questions in two hours as you said here at the would us in that joint press conference. of course, he'll be asked that

very question. wolf? >> fascinating. laura, the attack on the attorney general by the president in this tweet early this morning involved hillary clinton. tell viewers why that is significant. >> wolf, this is really significant because the president is attacking his own attorney general for not investigating a political rival. but it's also interesting, because the president knew session's position on this months ago. back in january jeff sessions was asked how he'd approach the clinton matter given his role on trump the campaign and all the rhetoric and sessions made clear he would step aside. way before this broader recusal in march, from all things related to the president's campaigns. take a listen to what sessions said back then. >> with regard to secretary clinton and some of the comments i made, i do believe that that could place my objectivity in question. i've given that thought.

i believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that -- involve secretary clinton, and that it will raise during the campaign. >> we're really just in a remarkable limbo period of waiting, wolf, to see who makes the first move. we haven't heard from sessions today, but last week he said he would stay on as attorney general as long as it was appropriate to do so. obviously, that was before the latest barrage of tweets f particular the president. >> officer a daily basis the president seems to be going after the attorney general. this part of the story, more coming up. also a tug-of-war over the former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. the senate judiciary committee issued a subpoena to compel manafort to appear in a public hearing tomorrow, but we've now learned manafort left with staff members of the senate

intelligence committee early this morning. this comes at jared kushner merricks a second guest appearance up on capitol hill. today's audience, the house intelligence committee where he's testifying under oath. our senior congressional reporter manu raju joins us from capitol hill. first of all, manu, what do we know about manafort's testimony and the subpoena? >> well, i'm told by a source familiar with the matter that when paul manafort did meet with staff in the senate intelligence committee this morning that it was actually a meeting focused exclusively on that trump tower meeting from june 2016 when donald trump jr., manafort and, of course, jared kushner met with russians after donald trump jr., of course, was promised dirt from russians. part of what he was told at the time. a russian government effort to help his father's campaign. now, investigators did want to learn more about that specific meeting, and the senate side. that is what they discussed. now, he also agreed to come back at a later date, i'm told, and

talk to the full committee, senate intelligence committee, and staff, to discuss other topics related to the russia investigation. this comes, wolf, as the senate judiciary committee now demanding that paul manafort appear tomorrow in a public setting. this after, an effort to try to talk to him privately fell apart, because according to the senate judiciary committee, manafort only agreed to give one transcribed interview to aening cou and that the senate intelligence committee. as a result, a subpoena issued today, last night, by the judiciary committee for manafort to appear tomorrow. the question is what will happen if manafort does not appear? what will the committee do then? dianne be feinstein addressed this moments ago. >> we can hold him in contempt, and that's a more complicated process. i hope that's not the case. i think he said that he would testify in public, and i think

this is important for him to do so. i think it's important that members of the committee have an opportunity to see him. he's a very complicated figure, and there is a lot of material there, and a lot of questions that he raises. >> now, i talked to feinstein after she talked to our colleague there and told me specifically they are having discussions with manafort's camp, the senate judiciary committee is, to try to see if they can reach accomodation before any showdown tomorrow. don't know whether or not they'd r be successful but cut a deal last week. thought they had a deal. it fell apart. that why they issued a subpoena. the question whether or not paul manafort and the judiciary committee can get back on the same page. uncertain right now, wolf. >> and amazing what'ses going on. jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, i take it still

meeting with the house intelligence committee. looking at pictures behind closed doors as we speak. what have you heard about kushner's questioning today? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. actually entering hour three of his testimony. longer than when he met with senate staff on the intelligence committee yesterday. this actually is members of the house intelligence committee attending this one. asking questions about that 1 1-page testimony he released yesterday saying, laying out his russian contacts. republicans emerged so far have been positive about kushner's appearance including tom rooney, a florida congressman helping to lead the russia investigation. i asked him about this. he said kushner has been forthright, hon effort and think he's answered all questions sufficiently and one thing, wolf. kushner said he'll stay as long as possible probably an effort that he doesn't get called back again to the house intelligence committee. >> we'll follow that as well.

manu raju, thank you very much. other important news on capitol hill, nail-biting time for the showdown in a final push to move the obamacare process forward. senator mitch mcconnell scheduled a vote today on what's called a motion to proceed. he says it's an opportunity for republicans to make good on all of their promises. rchltsz i hope everyone will seize the moment. i certainly will. only then can we open up a robust debate process. only then will senators have the opportunity to offer additional ideas on health care. inaction will do nothing to solve obamacare's problems or bring relief

very many questions what the next when they get on the bill if this actually happens. what will they be able to come up with getting another 50 votes in terms of the substance of what an obamacare repeal and replacement bill would look like and more importantly can they come up with anything that will get that 50 votes? it's unclear. behind me a lot of people are gathered. the first vote will happen supposedly in less than an hour. we'll get a good sense how this will go down if they can even start the debate. one thing i want to say, not sure whether it will change votes in the short term, there seems to be a connection between the trolling that the president

is doing of jeff sessions. the attorney general, who is a former colleague of these republicans, and the pressure that the president is trying to put on the current republican senators. meaning, i've had two senior republican senators say to me, people are talking in the hall ways and kind of in the, behind closed doors about, well, if the president is going after a guy who was incredibly loyal, the very first senator to come out for donald trump when nobody else would go near him in this building, and he's being so aggressive in clearly trying to force him to quit, what's going to happen when we need him to have our back? if we go forward down the road and continue to vote on very, potentially very tough health care measures when it comes to our constituents. unclear if that's going to have ultimately an impact on people's votes but certainly part of the discussion here today. >> quickly, dana, tell us also about a dramatic moment we're

about to see. senator john mccain returning to the senate. >> reporter: uh-huh. that's right. john mccain did get an okay from his doctors to return. he is on his way back to washington. he could be here in a little more than an hour to take a vote, to be a part of the process to start debate on health care, but more importantly, to -- to return to work. that he -- the fact he got the okay. he felt he wanted to get in the game, get in the arena, as somebody who i respect, speaking to, knows him well was saying, not necessarily a be health care but about the defense authorization bill in which he is in charge of as chair of the armed services committee. the sanctions bill he's very much in favor of pushing through to get to the president's desk, sanctions against russia. things like that. you talked about drama. we'll see him talk on the senate floor about the process and about the atmosphere in the united states senate. it's hard to imagine he's not

also going to be talking about his own very grim diagnosis of grain cancer. >> we'll stand by for that dramatic moment indeed. we wish him only, only the best. dana, thanks very much. we'll get back to you. later this hour, by the way, joined live by senator rand paul who were give us details on the health care bill. the vote, senator mccain's return to capitol hill, and what the president is saying about the attorney general. that interview coming up later in the hour. and the future attorney general jeff sessions, can he hang on after president trump's blistering attack? can he and should he? cnn exclusive, disturbing new details about russian efforts to back the taliban in afghanistan, even as the pentagon considers sending more u.s. troops to afghanistan. nick payton wall be has an exclusive report from kabul. much more coming up. we'll be right back. hi. i'm the one clocking in... when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable.

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house intelligence committee. let's listen in to the leaders of that committee as they speak. >> mr. kushner, a e found him to be straightforward, forthcoming. i wanted to answer every question we had. and willing to follow-up on any questions we think of later didn't get asked this morning and i thank him for his, the way he conducted himself this morning in a very professional matter with that i'll turn to my colleague from california. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we had a good opportunity to ask mr. kushner questions this morning. he expressed and his counsel receptivity to come back for further questions, but it was a very productive session. we had an opportunity to ask about a range of issues that the committee had been concerned about and appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> there you see the leaders of the intelligence committee investigating the russia probe. mike conaway, who's the acting

chairman and adam schiff, who's the top democrat on the committee both suggesting it was a very productive session. there you see jared kushner walking eway from congress. yesterday when he got back to the white house he made a statement in the driveway outside of the west wing. see if he does today. i suspect he won't. gloria, this is a big deal right now. the fact that second day in a row the president's son-in-law, the president's senior adviser, is appearing before a congressional committee. >> right. and gave a statement about it yesterday. made the case that every, all of his meetings were innocent, portrayed himself as a naive of sorts, somebody who really didn't understand the implications of what, of what he was doing in terms of meeting with the russians and asking for general to general discussions that could be held potentially at the russian embassy, et cetera, et cetera and, you know,

you have to give himme credit f testifying before one committee one day. committee staffers one day and in the house the next. i think that clearly his lawyers have a strategy here, which is, he wants to get it all done very quickly, and put the story out there that he was sort of an innocent to all of this. >> his lawyers, abbe lowell, jamie, well-known lawyers and seems to be doing what they're suggesting. you know what? get it out and move on. >> doesn't mean there aren't remaining questions. there are. i don't think the pressure to speak publicly is going away anytime soon and i think that there are many members who still would like to probe things that he doesn't cover in detail necessarily in the 11-page statement and obviously we don't know the full content of what he has said behind closed doors. i don't think the questions go away in the fact he managed public relations on this rather well yesterday and today. there's no doubt about that, but i don't think that necessarily removes the cloud.

>> and getting fairly good grades as a result of his statement yesterday. willingness to appear today. >> well, i think that's right. to david's point, i do think from a p.r. perspective this is helpful, because i think you've seen so many administration officials be resistant to tell the whole story. it's come out drips and drabs. that said, you heard adam schiff, the ranking member there say, we have some more questions for him. so, you know, the issue here is, we don't really know what adam -- what adam? what jared kushner told them behind closed doors. that could create problems that are totally invisible to us but that could have sort of longer tale to it. without question, yes. anytime you come up to capitol hill, you show yourself at least to be willing to do so, to answer questions, to testify, you're helping yourself. just depends now on what you say. >> and susan page of "usa today," if you lie to members of

congress, even if not under oath that's a crime. >> what we're seeing happening yesterday is unfolding of a new chapter in this whole investigation. we're going to see principle figures, very close to president trump, coming up and being forced to answer questions under oath or not under oath in public or not including in the senate judiciary committee possibly tomorrow with paul manafort. >> and manu raju on capitol hill, monitoring what's going on? what are you hearing? we'll find him and get back. oh, they he is. if you can hear me, tell us what you're learning. >> reporter: right. i just -- briefly asked a question to jim heinz, a top democrat on the house intelligence committee. i said how did jared kushner do? what did you think? he said he was cooperative. so positive signal from one democrat. i want to talk further, members rushing out to get to vote. didn't get a chance to get a

>> -- and pursued prosecution of a former political rival is highly inappropriate and went on to really support sessions. mike lee, senator from utah said this. listen -- >> even though he and i disagree from time to time, i find him to be a man of integrity. a man who has led the department of justice in what i regard to be a positive direction. i look forward to continuing to work with him.

>> a bunch of republicans ral rallying around jeff sessions. >> and certainly looks like they've been given the senate it's okay to do so and now is the time to buck up jeff sessions. here's the thing. this isn't about jeff sessions. it isn't about one cabinet member. this is about the fundamental value of the rule of law. because it's not just jeff sessions. the president is going after his attorney general, deputy attorney general, acting director of the fbi, the special prosecutor. this is about the people that head up the -- the top law enforcement agencies that are -- oh, by the way, investigating this president and his campaign's dealings with russia. this is a problem that this president is not seeing the need at all, it seems, for independence, for these folks at the top of the law enforcement agencies, he sees no need to separate that from his own legal

and political peril. >> yes. and the "i expect loyalty." right? donald trump views everyone -- splits everyone into two camps. either you support him or hate him and are out to get him. it's not party driven necessarily. not even really ideologically driven, it's, do you say nice things about him? whether a reporter, a cooperative, a member of congress or member of his cabinet. if you say and do what he wants, you are good. if you do not, you are bad. because people say, how could he possibly do this to his own attorney general? because he doesn't see the world that way. he sees the world as friends and foes and splits them up seemingly every day into different piles. >> makes a good point, and today making a fair point. not only going after sessions but the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. acting director of the fbi, andrew mckeggy and tweets this at 6:21 a.m. this is the president. problem is that the acting head of the fbi and the person in

charge of the hillary investigation andrew mccabe got 700,000 dollars from h., from hillary clinton, for wife. he's going after, his wife was running for office in the state of virginia. got contributions, but he's raising questions about the integrity of the acting director of the fbi. >> and congressional republicans have stuck pretty well with donald trump on, on variety of issues. pretty supportive. kept quiet on cases they weren't so supportives. something that's seen as an attack on constitutional protections on the, on our system of checks and balances i think would prompt any number of senior republicans to try to rethink what their attitude is towards this president. mueller?

and we're at a tipping point now where this question of, who reins? donald trump or the rule of law, as david puts it. and i think we're going to watch that play out and i agree with you, susan. that members of congress and lindsey graham hinted at that really strongly today, believe in the rule of law, because it outlasts any particular president or administration. and -- so he could set in motion a chain of events that we just don't know where it's going to lead, but i think we are at the precipice of something. i'm not quite sure what it is yet but something. >> everybody stand by, because

there are developments unfolding, breaking news unfolding. also right now, senate republicans, they are meeting behind closed doering lookiors t pictures from the senate. looking to repeal and replace obamacare. a critical vote expected later today. so critical an ailing senator john mccain is now making his way back to washington to cast his vote and make a statement. our panel, we're going to discuss that and a lot more. we'll be right back. for 6 tylen? no thanks. for me... it's aleve.

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luncheon is's hassing over there right now. no doubt a lot of wheeling and dealing happening right now as a vote on health care is scheduled for later today. procedural vote to get the process started. let bring back our panel. gloria, this is, some uncertainty whether they can get the 50. they need 50 votes. there are 52 republicans. 48 democrats and independents oppose. they lose three, it's over. >> right. >> mike pence, vice president, can break a tie. >> don't forget. what they are voting on is a motion to proceed with debate of the bill. they are not voting on the bill. there are lots of members upset with the process, because they're voting on a motion to proceed on a bill that they don't know what it is yet. okay? so that's a bit of a problem. a bit of a problem for them. however, they -- i think it's an easier vote for them today to vote on proceeding, even if they

end up voting against the bill. a lot of them believe they will have shots at their own o amendments, tried to fix the bill and that way it didn't work out for me. i think mcconnell has an easier shot at getting to 50 on this than he would on the health care legislation itself. >> for those senators that say seven or so, real holdouts, republicans whether from medicaid expansion states or wanted the full cruz regulations reform, what have you, this was a ept month of leverage to try to exert on leadership. you want my vote for the motion to proceed, procedural vote, what will i get in the bill for this? to gloryia's point, it's not clear anybody will get anything, because what they're really doing is not mcconnelitch mccon original plan. he wanted the entire replace rae

perae -- repeal. that's not happening now. get on with all the amendments but without an agreement upon -- >> see what they do after they start the process going. the president, he tweeted this. he said this, chris. any senator to votes against starting debate is telling america that you are fine with the obamacare nightmare. >> yeah. i mean, he's never been one for understatement. so i don't think we should be terribly surprised about that. i'm 100% with gloria in that this is the one vote currently on health -- anything tied to health care they have a legitimate chance of getting 50. i think you do anything else, straight repeal, i was going to aree peel and replace but there's no plan, that doesn't get 50. the one danger i think politically speaking, and they don't have a up who amount of vulnerability in 2018, really, dean heller is the only republican up in a state hillary clinton won. but the danger politically is,

regular folks do not understand what the difference between a motion to proceed and a, and a final vote. so you saw chuck schumer on the floor soon after mitch mcconnell went on the floor. basically chuck schumer said, make no mistake. if you vote for this, you are voting for this bad plan that comes next. because, i mean, he's reminding the dean hellers of the world, we will run ads against you saying you voted for health care. again, they don't have a huge amount of vulnerability. only ten seats up. nine in states that donald trump won. the closest state other than nevada is arizona where trump won by nine. jeff flake is there. so it may have less resonance than in a different election cycle but i city think democrats will try to use it. >> not sure, he voted for the motion to proceed, is a kind of clear banner to carry into a -- >> i say he voted for it. you're right. >> whatever. >> i think we shouldn't underestimate the impactccain's

on this. seven senators vote you couldn't count on. senator mccain coming back after a very dire diagnose, quite beloved by people on both sides of the aisle to cast a vote in favor of the motion to proceed puts other senators over the line, too, to debate. >> he this the full process open hearings and go forward with a big debate, not necessarily just try to ram it -- didn't he make a statement along those lines? >> he did. i'm with susan. i can't imagine he comes back from arizona to vote against the motion to proceed. i think that his justification will be, okay. we're not having open hearings, but this would be -- if they get the motion to proceed, this would be by far the most open process. certainly more than what mcconnell wanted initially. to david's point, take the bill and here it is. either vote for it or against it. they'll be an amendment, a series of votes.

it is not exactly what john mccain said, but he could -- it issals a not, you get one vote and that's it. no one else has say. >> can i say also, the president may be threatening people in tweets and back me up here but they're not afraid of him, honestly, anymore. in certain states, yes, he's really popular, et cetera, et cetera but he's at 36% right now. they're worried about a lot of other things, too, including what dana was talking about on jeff sessions. a lot of republicans are upset about that. and so i think the environment isn't win one for the gipper right now. it's just the opposite of that. >> there's a lot more developing right now. let's take a quick break. resume our coverage right after this. if you have medicare

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a very high-strakes drama playing out over health care on capitol hill. the senate scheduled to vote soon on a procedural motion to open debate on a health care bill and the margins, we're told, are razor thin. senator rand paul of kentucky joins us now. he says he'll vote yes on this procedural motion. senator, why did you decide to go ahead and vote in favor of opening debate? >> you know, i've been advocating for months to have a clean repeal. meaning that we don't have an insurance bailout. just repeal the bad parts of obamacare and try to get back to where we have an insurance market that provides less expensive insurance for people. i've been assured that the first amendment to the bill will be a clean repeal of obamacare. that's what i advocate for so i'm going to vote to go to the bill, because that will be the first amendment which will be a clean repeal. >> you know it's going to fail? >> well, i don't know anything. i think people have to vote and then we'll decide. i know that 51 of the 52

republican senators have advocated and voted for this in the past. we'll see what happens. >> and do you believe the motion simply to start the debate -- you have the 50 votes you need to at least begin the process? >> i think so. and if the clean repeal doesn't pass, and if the senate leadership plan doesn't pass, then i think we begin the process of voting on variations of smaller ideas and see how many ideas we can come to agreement on. this is something i've been talking about for nearly a year is -- let's start small and see how many pieces of repeal we can all agree on. we may find we can actually agree on quite a bit. >> listen to what the president said a very precisely yesterday. listen to this. >> any senator who votes against starting debate is telling america that you are fine with the obamacare nightmare which is what it is. and for senate republicans, this

is their chance to keep their promise. over and over again, they said, repeal and replace, repeal and replace. but they can now keep their promise to the american people. >> so, are you okay -- is it helpful to have the president put this kind of pressure on his fellow republicans? >> you know, i've had a lot of conversations with the president throughout this whole process, and i think if we're talking about the ultimate goal being repealing obamacare, which i think the president favors, i think it is helpful, and i think his interactions with various senators, his bringing us to the white house has been constructive. >> in an earlier interview with fox, you did complain that the senate leadership have, quote, loaded this bill with pork. aren't they just doing whatever they need to do to win over those undecided senators and pump a lot of money into their respective states? >> well, i think what's going to happen is i think that bill

that's laden with pork is going to fail. i think the clean repeal has a chance but it may also fail. but then i think the process actually gets to what i've been advocating for a long time at that point. we begin constructing the bill from a very small nucleus of ideas that we all agree on. i think we have nearly unanimous agreement on getting rid of the individual mandate, getting rid of the employer mandate. repealing some of the taxes. i think there's even some agreement on medicare expansion gradually going to a point where the states pay the traditional share of that. so i think we may find we have more agreement if we start small and get larger. what we were trying to do before was to fix everything under the universe that has to do with health care, and there were too many moving pieces that we couldn't agree to. i think starting small and trying to craft a bill that gets bigger and bigger by consensus might actually be a good idea. >> but you know when you say a clean repeal bill, it's not a clean repeal bill because it's only a partial repeal. a lot of the affordable care

act, a lot of obamacare remains. you can't repeal it simply with that one vote, right? >> right. and this is why, you know, when people say, oh, i'm being absolutist. no, i've all along said that i'll vote for partial repeal. i want to vote for as much repeal and as much freedom as we can get. to me, when you repeal stuff, you give people the freedom to buy what kind of insurance they want and he price they want to buy it so i'm for the more repeal the better and we'll see what we can get consensus on but i think if we start small, individual mandate, employer mandate, some of the taxes, let's see what we can agree on and build from there. i've talked to some of the senators who are a no on the more complete repeal and i think there are ways to meld part of the complete repeal with the senate leadership fund to actually get to something that is a pretty good repeal. >> let's shift gears for a moment. i want to ask you about the president's growing attack, the criticism he's leveling against

the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions. he's gone to twitter once again, accusing him of being weak. as far as hillary clinton was concerned, he's referred to him as beleaguered. he was the earliest, most ardent senate supporter of the president. what do you make of the president's treatment of jeff sessions, your former senate colleague? >> you know, i guess my disagreements with the attorney general have been more substantive, not necessarily on the russia investigation. my disagreements have been over the federal government coming in and usurping state law with regard to civil asset forfeiture, taking money from people who are not convicted of anything. attorney general jeff sessions wanting to do that, to me, is a real problem. i very strongly disagree with it. also his idea that he's going come in and supercede state law to overturn local state marijuana policy, i object to that. and also the idea that we would take mandatory minimums and try to throw the book at everybody, no matter what their crime is and have them in jail for a

mandatory sentence so there's a lot of i disagree with. so the president and i may have different reasons for thinking the attorney general's not doing a good job. we're basically on the same side in the sense that the attorney general needs to, i think, change his course with regard to criminal justice as far as i'm concerned. >> so as far as you're concerned, you'd be happy if he resigns or is fired? >> i would like to see the attorney general actually quit going after poor people and their money who have not been convicted of anything. i think the presumption of innocent until proven guilty in our court system is incredibly important, and when you want to try to take people's property without even a charge or a conviction, overturn state law that requires a conviction, that, to me, is so wrong-headed that i will try to do anything i can to get him to change his mind or stop doing what he's doing. >> one critic of president trump, a republican congressman adam kinzinger of illinois, says the president's tweets about jeff sessions are beneath the dignity, beneath the office of

the president. do you agree that the president shouldn't be, you know, slamming his attorney general in public the way he is in that interview with the "new york times" and as far as the tweets are concerned? >> you know, i think the president has his own unique way of going about things that nobody everybody else would choose those methods but i do think that the president is, in some ways, justified in being upset that the attorney general has left him open to this whole idea of some kind of special prosecutor looking into every asset of his entire life, aspect of his entire life, and i think that he sees this being a, you know, many-year process that's never going to go away. these special prosecutors go on and on and on. so i think he blames, you know, attorney general sessions for getting out of the way and simply washing his hands of this whole russia deal. but i think the russia deal really is still related to partisan politics and it's related to people still looking

and having sour grapes over having lost the election. >> senator paul, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room for our international viewers, amanpour is coming up next. for our viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right after a baldwin starts right after a quick break. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of progression, including preservision areds 2. my doctor said preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula the national eye institute recommends to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd after 15 years of clinical studies. preservision areds 2. because my eyes are everything.

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breaking news on a summer tuesday. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. special coverage here on several major events. moments from now, the senate will hold this crucial vote on health care to see whether they will begin debate on some version. i say that on purpose, some version of the republican health care plan, a bill that's been really mysterious all the way up until now. you know senator john mccain has been away, undergone surgery, will be speaking live, we'll be back in washington speaking live on the senate floor, returning since being diagnosed with brain cancer just a couple of days ago so that's significant. we'll take that live. of course we're also watching the president, who is set to give this news